On Sun, Jan 8, 2023 at 1:50 PM Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > That will be complex. I had an RK8 disk controller (the 6 foot cabinet > that was it) along with a pair of the RK03 disk drives and it was (a) > insane, (b) heavy beyond belief, and (c) finicky.
I think I've only ever seen pictures. I know I haven't seen one up close. > It also required Data break which is not built into the stock pdp8/L. That's just a few common modules, fortunately. > You would need a BM08 box, and as I'm looking for one myself they will > be tough to get :-) Absolutely. Not a lot of benefit having storage without memory extension. > You might be better off getting your 8/L working and trying things like > FOCAL on paper tape and other simple paper tape/serial based stuff. > Running OS/8 will require either a pdp8/I (with the extra memory, data > break, and helpful things like the EAE) or as I mentioned a BM08. FOCAL is absolutely a good starting point for making a 4K PDP-8/L do _something_ interesting. I haven't ever tried doing assembly using the paper tape tools (it's several passes and uses quite a bit of tape) but I have assembled small programs by hand and toggled them directly into the front panel. Obviously that's no fun for anything over a few dozen instructions. -ethan
